health care

The Right Way to Pay for Health Care

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The health care bill that finally passed the U.S. Senate has many differences from the bill that passed the House of Representatives, but both bills have additional taxes designed to close certain revenue shortages. In the House bill, some of the finance for expanding coverage to the millions without health care comes from an income […]

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How National Health Care Will Improve Your Salary

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The latest turn in the health care debate drops the public option but would extend Medicare eligibility downward to begin at 55 years old. Since the words “public option” bring automatic opposition, health care reform supporters in Congress apparently decided to address the politics with some new words even though Medicare is already a public […]

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Why the Health Care Reform Bill Won’t Control Costs

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For the first time, all but the smallest employers will be required to provide health insurance coverage to the workers, thanks to a bill passed in the House of Representatives (“House Democrats promise health-care victory as Republicans remain opposed to bill,” Washington Post, Nov. 8, 2009). The requirement is new, but the bill perpetuates the […]

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Health Care Reform Hinges on Wealth Inequality

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The debate over health care reform drags on with charges and countercharges. When the groups opposed to change want to throw down the gauntlet, they will describe the Democrats’ proposals as a “complete takeover of the health care industry.” Using the words “complete takeover” makes it sound like the private insurance industry once served people […]

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Gambling on the Hope of Becoming Wealthy

In order to pay for health care proposals that extend coverage to 37 million people who are currently without coverage, House Democrats recently announced a plan to raise personal income tax rates up to 5.4% on incomes over $350,000. The Obama Administration is supporting a similar plan. In a recent article about the proposal in […]

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It’s Time to Publicly Fund Physician Training

The need for health care reform and new health care policies keeps making the news almost every day. Better access to health care includes better access to the knowledge and services of physicians. That would imply the number of new health care graduates should grow as the population grows, but medical school degree data published […]

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Will Taxing Health Care Benefits Pay for Reform?

The headline in the Washington Post reads “Tax on Health Benefits Weighed” with the subhead “Senator Calls Levy ‘Perhaps the Best Way’ to Pay for Overhaul.” The qualifier “perhaps”, in this case, means the best we can do given that a majority in Congress wants to avoid raising income tax rates at the top of […]

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